:salam2:
This is my first post in a while, so my salaams to you all.
As per the issue, then may Allaah reward you all with good for your responses and love for the Messenger's sunnah. May He, the most High, increase us in good and make us from those who implement the sunnah. For those of you new and/or confused on this matter, I pray that what I've written below assists you.
Brother IbnAdam has written a nice response to those who reject the Prophet's (sall Allaahu `alayhi wasallam) sunnah. I wanted to add a few verses of the Qur'an to IbnAdam's and others replies to this thread.
Allaah says,
Say, [O Muhammad], "If you should love Allah , then follow me, [so] Allah will love you and forgive you your sins. And Allah is Forgiving and Merciful." Say, "Obey Allah and the Messenger." But if they turn away - then indeed, Allah does not like the disbelievers.
[Sûrah Âl `Imrân 3:31-32]
Here, we are explicitly being told that
the pleasure of Allaah is earned and
our sins forgiven through our following of the Prophet. He says also,
And obey Allah and the Messenger that you may obtain mercy.
[Sûrah Âl `Imrân 3:132]
In this verse, Allaah has ascribed the
obtaining of mercy to following Him and His messenger.
Follow, [O mankind], what has been revealed to you from your Lord and do not follow other than Him any allies. Little do you remember.
[Sûrah Al-A`râf 7:3]
Ibn Kathîr and others stated in their tafseers that this means to follow what has been sent down to the Messenger (sall Allaahu `alayhi wasallam) and to not follow other than that.
And We have not revealed to you the Book, [O Muhammad], except for you to make clear to them that wherein they have differed and as guidance and mercy for a people who believe.
[Sûrah An-Nahl 16:64]
Pay attention to Allaah's words to Muhammad, regarding the revealing of His book,
"except for you to make clear".
Say, "Obey Allah and obey the Messenger; but if you turn away - then upon him is only that [duty] with which he has been charged, and upon you is that with which you have been charged. And if you obey him, you will be [rightly] guided. And there is not upon the Messenger except the [responsibility for] clear notification."
[Sûrah An-Nûr 24:54]
Here, Allaah has promised
right guidance who follow His Rasool (sall Allaahu `alayhi wasallam).
So let those beware who dissent from the Prophet's order, lest fitnah strike them or a painful punishment.
[Sûrah An-Nûr 24:63]
Imaam Ahmad and others have stated that this fitnah (tribulation) is none other than Shirk and/or Kufr.
From the above verses, we are commanded with the following of the Prophet (sall Allaahu `alayhi wasallam), and we are told that by doing so,
we obtain Allaah's love, His mercy, are forgiven our sins and that we are
rightly guided. We are also told that by not doing so we will be afflicted by a
punishment and a trial, and that the Qur'an wasn't sent except for the Messenger to make things clear wherein the people differed.
In converse, we can logically say/argue that those who don't follow his Prophet (sall Allaahu `alayhi wasallam) have earned Allaah's hate/displeasure, miss this opportunity of forgiveness, are despaired from His mercy, are wrongly guided and will suffer a severe trial and punishment. What a wretched state. Why someone would want to be in such a state beats me.
So how does one follow the Messenger (sall Allaahu `alayhi wasallam) except by his sunnah? What other source is there to follow? The Qur'aan is the speech of Allaah, not His prophet so that rules that out. Other than the Qur'aan, what is there? The tales/stories of elders? The words of orientalists? Or the sunnah which came down and has been preserved by the most stringent and rigid of methodologies to preserve it from corruption?
What these Qur'aanists don't realise, and this shows the level of their meagre knowledge and understanding; their lack of understanding the Book which they claim to follow exclusively, is that by following the Qur'aan, this necessitates following also, the plethora of verses related to obeying and following the Messenger, and to take to him in matters of different and dispute!!!?
I wonder how these people achieve fulfilment of these Qur'anic commandments if they reject the hadeeth and sunnah. They are left with nothing except the works of liars such as the scholars of the non-believers, shi`a and tale carriers. If such materials suffice these people then to them be their religion, and us ours: Islam.
I close with a hadeeth of the prophet which is Saheeh and reported by Ibn Maajah and Aboo Daawood. Everytime I have relayed this to a Qur'aani, it has left them in dumbstruck in defeat and silence, as they themselves were reclining on their chairs at the time...
"Let me not find one of you reclining upon his couch when an affair which I have commanded or forbidden comes to him and he says: 'We do not know. We will just follow what we find in the Book of Allaah'."
Was-salaam